Non-metric units in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

If like me, you are a fan of the Olympic Games, over the last 16 days you have probably enjoyed seeing the metric system used almost exclusively in TV coverage of the Games. It seems that the tendency, all too common in the 1970s, for British TV commentators to convert heights jumped, and distances thrown, into feet and inches, is definitely a thing of the past.

However, whilst most of the events, such as athletics, swimming and cycling, could be said to be exclusively metric, a few events still made use of non-metric measurement units.

Now that the Paris 2024 Olympic Games have come to a close, we take a look at some of the last hold-outs of non-metric units.

Continue reading “Non-metric units in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games”

Iceland supermarkets lead the way for litre-based sizes of own-brand milk

So far, Iceland seems to be the only major British supermarket that is selling own-brand milk and all other milk brands in litre-based sizes. Why haven’t any other major supermarkets followed suit by dropping pint-based milk sizes?

Continue reading “Iceland supermarkets lead the way for litre-based sizes of own-brand milk”

DfT hides metric nature of location signs from general public

Did you know that there are purely metric signs (without any imperial conversions) on major roads at one hundred metre intervals? If you know this, you are one of the few who do. I am referring to marker posts and driver location signs. These signs are used by the emergency services to help them to locate stranded drivers and are incompatible with the official traffic signs for the general public, which are almost exclusively imperial.

Continue reading “DfT hides metric nature of location signs from general public”

British driver caught speeding in France after misreading km/h for mph

A British driver in France has been stripped of his driver licence after misreading a 125 km/h speed limit sign for 125 mph. This is not the first time that miles and kilometres have been confused when reading speed limits. Back in January 2021, Metric Views reported a similar case of a high-profile foreign Premier League footballer who confused km/h and mph when driving in the UK. And it is unlikely to be the last time it happens.

Continue reading “British driver caught speeding in France after misreading km/h for mph”

Legal ambiguity of dual unit restriction signs

Dual units have been mandatory on restriction signs since TSRGD 2016. For height restrictions, the imperial and metric units normally appear on a single sign though they can appear on separate adjacent signs. Most height restriction traffic signs for bridges now show dual units. If your vehicle complies with both values, you can drive under the bridge. If your vehicle does not comply with either value, you cannot drive under the bridge. But what if your vehicle complies with only one of the values? Can you drive under the bridge in this case?

Continue reading “Legal ambiguity of dual unit restriction signs”

50 years of metric road signs in Australia

1 July 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the switch to metric road signs in Australia.

For about a year before the change, car manufacturers fitted dual speedometers to their vehicles and, after 1974 all new cars were fitted with metric-only speedometers. Several kinds of speedometer conversion kits were available. As a result of all these changes, conversion on the roads occurred without incident.

Continue reading “50 years of metric road signs in Australia”

Do our motorway junction numbers hinder the use of driver location signs?

Recent Metric Views articles have discussed the poor awareness of the meaning of driver location signs amongst the general public, and argued that despite their inclusion in recent editions of the Highway Code, there is still a need for a new public information campaign about these signs.

However, could there be another reason why driver location signs are poorly understood? And is there a solution that would both increase public awareness and increase their use?

Continue reading “Do our motorway junction numbers hinder the use of driver location signs?”

No more official publicity for driver location signs

The Government have confirmed that there will be no more official publicity of driver location signs in a response to UKMA member Martin Vlietstra. Driver location signs use yellow font colour on a blue background with a white border and appear along the edges of motorways and on certain dual carriageway A-roads in England. They are normally spaced at 500 metre intervals.

Continue reading “No more official publicity for driver location signs”

Transport software company increases chance of errors by using dual units

Jaama, a transport software company, advertises its MyVehicle App software product on its website with images showing that it uses both kilometres and miles. 1 Using dual units within software introduces the possibility of conversion errors and unit mix-ups. There are real-world examples of errors arising from the use of dual units in transport. Some are described in this article.

Continue reading “Transport software company increases chance of errors by using dual units”